John Vincent Atanasoff

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John Vincent Atanasoff
OCM
ATANASOFF Pic^2 - Flickr - Eye Steel Film.jpg
Atanasoff in the 1990s
Born(1903-10-04)October 4, 1903
Hamilton, New York, U.S.
DiedJune 15, 1995(1995-06-15) (aged 91)
Frederick, Maryland, U.S.
Alma mater University of Florida
Iowa State University
University of Wisconsin–Madison
Known for Atanasoff–Berry Computer
Awards Order of Saints Cyril and Methodius, First Class
Scientific career
Fields Physics
Doctoral advisor J. H. V. Vleck

John Vincent Atanasoff OCM (October 4, 1903 – June 15, 1995) was an American physicist and inventor credited with inventing the first electronic digital computer. [1] Atanasoff invented the first electronic digital computer in the 1930s at Iowa State College (now known as Iowa State University). Challenges to his claim were resolved in 1973 when the Honeywell v. Sperry Rand lawsuit ruled that Atanasoff was the inventor of the computer. [2] [3] [4] [5] His special-purpose machine has come to be called the Atanasoff–Berry Computer.

Contents

Early life and education

Atanasoff was born on October 4, 1903, in Hamilton, New York to an electrical engineer and a school teacher. [6] Atanasoff's father, Ivan Atanasov, was of Bulgarian origin, born in 1876 in the village of Boyadzhik, close to Yambol, then in the Ottoman Empire. While Ivan Atanasov was still an infant, his own father was killed by Ottoman soldiers after the Bulgarian April Uprising. [7] In 1889, Ivan immigrated to the United States with his uncle. John's father later became an electrical engineer, whereas his mother, Iva Lucena Purdy (of mixed French and Irish ancestry), was a teacher of mathematics. [8] [9] [10]

Atanasoff was raised in Brewster, Florida. Young Atanasoff's ambitions and intellectual pursuits were in part influenced by his parents, whose interests in the natural and applied sciences cultivated in him a sense of critical curiosity and confidence.[ citation needed ] At the age of nine, he learned to use a slide rule, followed shortly by the study of logarithms, and subsequently completed high school at Mulberry High School in two years.[ citation needed ] In 1925, Atanasoff received his Bachelor of Science degree in electrical engineering from the University of Florida. [6]

He continued his education at Iowa State College and in 1926 earned a master's degree in mathematics. [6] He completed his formal education in 1930 by earning a PhD in theoretical physics from the University of Wisconsin–Madison with his thesis, The Dielectric Constant of Helium. [6] Upon completion of his doctorate, Atanasoff accepted an assistant professorship at Iowa State College in mathematics and physics.[ citation needed ]

Computer development

1997 replica of the Atanasoff-Berry Computer at Durham Center, Iowa State University Atanasoff-Berry Computer.jpg
1997 replica of the Atanasoff–Berry Computer at Durham Center, Iowa State University

Partly due to the drudgery of using the mechanical Monroe calculator, which was the best tool available to him while he was writing his doctoral thesis, Atanasoff began to search for faster methods of computation. At Iowa State, Atanasoff researched the use of slaved Monroe calculators and IBM tabulators for scientific problems, with which controlled the Monroe using the output of an IBM. In 1936 he invented an analog calculator for analyzing surface geometry. At this point, he was pushing the boundaries of what gears could do and the fine mechanical tolerance required for good accuracy pushed him to consider digital solutions.

With a grant of $650 received in September 1939 and the assistance of his graduate student Clifford Berry, the Atanasoff–Berry Computer (ABC) was prototyped by November of that year. According to Atanasoff, several operative principles of the ABC were conceived by him during the winter of 1938 after a drive to Rock Island, Illinois.

The key ideas employed in the ABC included binary math and Boolean logic to solve up to 29 simultaneous linear equations. The ABC had no central processing unit (CPU), but was designed as an electronic device using vacuum tubes for digital computation. It also had regenerative capacitor memory that operated by a process similar to that used today in DRAM memory.

Patent dispute

Atanasoff first met John Mauchly at the December 1940 meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Philadelphia, where Mauchly was demonstrating his "harmonic analyzer", an analog calculator for analysis of weather data. Atanasoff told Mauchly about his new digital device and invited him to see it.[ citation needed ]

In June 1941 Mauchly visited Atanasoff in Ames, Iowa for four days, staying as his houseguest. Atanasoff and Mauchly discussed the prototype ABC, examined it, and reviewed Atanasoff's design manuscript.[ citation needed ] In 1941 Atanasoff left Iowa State for a wartime assignment as Chief of the Acoustic Division with the Naval Ordnance Laboratory (NOL) in Washington, D.C. [6] No patent application for the ABC was subsequently filed by Iowa State College.[ citation needed ]

Mauchly visited Atanasoff multiple times in Washington during 1943 and discussed computing theories, but did not mention that he was working on a computer project himself until early 1944. [11]

By 1945 the U.S. Navy had decided to build a large-scale computer, on the advice of John von Neumann. Atanasoff was put in charge of the project, and he asked Mauchly to help with job descriptions for the necessary staff.[ citation needed ] However, Atanasoff was also given the responsibility of designing acoustic systems for monitoring atomic bomb tests.[ citation needed ] That job was made the priority, and he participated in the testing at Bikini Atoll in July 1946. [6] By the time he returned from the testing the NOL computer project was shut down due to lack of progress, again on the advice of von Neumann.[ citation needed ]

In June 1954 IBM patent attorney A. J. Etienne sought Atanasoff's help in breaking an Eckert–Mauchly patent on a revolving magnetic memory drum, having been alerted by Clifford Berry that the ABC's revolving capacitor memory drum may have constituted prior art. Atanasoff agreed to assist the attorney, but IBM ultimately entered a patent-sharing agreement with Sperry Rand, the owners of the Eckert–Mauchly memory patent, and the case was dropped. [12]

Atanasoff was deposed and testified at trial in the later action Honeywell v. Sperry Rand . In that case's decision, Judge Earl R. Larson found that "Eckert and Mauchly did not themselves first invent the automatic electronic digital computer, but instead derived that subject matter from one Dr. John Vincent Atanasoff".

Between 1954 and 1973, Atanasoff was a witness in the legal actions brought by various parties to invalidate electronic computing patents issued to Mauchly and J. Presper Eckert, which were owned by computer manufacturer Sperry Rand. In the 1973 decision of Honeywell v. Sperry Rand, a federal judge named Atanasoff the inventor of the electronic digital computer.

Postwar life

Following World War II Atanasoff remained with the government and developed specialized seismographs and microbarographs for long-range explosive detection. In 1952 he founded and led the Ordnance Engineering Corporation, selling the company to Aerojet General Corporation in 1956 and becoming Aerojet's Atlantic Division president. [6] He retired from Aerojet in 1961. [6]

In 1960 Atanasoff and his wife Alice moved to their hilltop farm in New Market, Maryland for their retirement.[ citation needed ] In 1961 he started another company, Cybernetics Incorporated, in Frederick, Maryland which he operated for 20 years.[ citation needed ] He developed a phonetic alphabet for computers during this period of his life. [6] He was gradually drawn into the legal disputes being contested by the fast-growing computer companies Honeywell and Sperry Rand. Following the resolution of Honeywell v. Sperry Rand, Atanasoff was warmly honored by Iowa State College, which had since become Iowa State University, and more awards followed.[ citation needed ]

Atanasoff died at the age of 91 on June 15, 1995, of a stroke at his home after a lengthy illness. [6] He is buried in Pine Grove Cemetery in Mount Airy, Maryland.[ citation needed ]

Heritage

Atanasoff visited Bulgaria twice, in 1975 and 1985. [13] He visited Boyadzhik village, where his grandfather had been shot by the Ottoman Turks, and was warmly welcomed by the locals and his father's relatives. He was made an honorable citizen of the town of Yambol, and received the "Key of the Town". He was also given various titles by the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. The John Atanasov prize is awarded every year in Bulgaria. The 3546 Atanasoff asteroid found at the Bulgarian astronomic observatory of Rozen, was named after him. [14]

Honors and distinctions

Monument to John Atanasoff in Sofia, Bulgaria John.atanasoff.jpeg
Monument to John Atanasoff in Sofia, Bulgaria

Atanasoff's first national award for scientific achievements was the Order of Saints Cyril and Methodius, First Class, Bulgaria's highest scientific honor bestowed to him in 1970, before the 1973 court ruling. [15]

In 1990, President George H. W. Bush awarded Atanasoff the United States National Medal of Technology, the highest U.S. honor conferred for achievements related to technological progress. [16]

Other distinctions awarded to Atanasoff include:

Named after Atanasoff

Selected bibliography

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Atanasoff–Berry computer</span> Early electronic digital computing device

The Atanasoff–Berry computer (ABC) was the first automatic electronic digital computer. Limited by the technology of the day, and execution, the device has remained somewhat obscure. The ABC's priority is debated among historians of computer technology, because it was neither programmable, nor Turing-complete. Conventionally, the ABC would be considered the first electronic ALU – which is integrated into every modern processor's design.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">ENIAC</span> First electronic general-purpose digital computer

ENIAC was the first programmable, electronic, general-purpose digital computer, completed in 1945. Other computers had some of these features, but ENIAC was the first to have them all. It was Turing-complete and able to solve "a large class of numerical problems" through reprogramming.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">J. Presper Eckert</span> American electrical engineer and computer pioneer (1919–1995)

John Adam Presper "Pres" Eckert Jr. was an American electrical engineer and computer pioneer. With John Mauchly, he designed the first general-purpose electronic digital computer (ENIAC), presented the first course in computing topics, founded the Eckert–Mauchly Computer Corporation, and designed the first commercial computer in the U.S., the UNIVAC, which incorporated Eckert's invention of the mercury delay-line memory.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Engineering Research Associates</span> Pioneering American computer firm (1946–1952)

Engineering Research Associates, commonly known as ERA, was a pioneering computer firm from the 1950s. ERA became famous for their numerical computers, but as the market expanded they became better known for their drum memory systems. They were eventually purchased by Remington Rand and merged into their UNIVAC department. Many of the company founders later left to form Control Data Corporation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Mauchly</span> American physicist and computer scientist (1907–1980)

John William Mauchly was an American physicist who, along with J. Presper Eckert, designed ENIAC, the first general-purpose electronic digital computer, as well as EDVAC, BINAC and UNIVAC I, the first commercial computer made in the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sperry Corporation</span> American equipment and electronics company (1910–1986)

Sperry Corporation was a major American equipment and electronics company whose existence spanned more than seven decades of the 20th century. Sperry ceased to exist in 1986 following a prolonged hostile takeover bid engineered by Burroughs Corporation, which merged the combined operation under the new name Unisys. Some of Sperry's former divisions became part of Honeywell, Lockheed Martin, Raytheon Technologies, and Northrop Grumman.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">UNIVAC I</span> First general-purpose computer designed for business application (1951)

The UNIVAC I was the first general-purpose electronic digital computer design for business application produced in the United States. It was designed principally by J. Presper Eckert and John Mauchly, the inventors of the ENIAC. Design work was started by their company, Eckert–Mauchly Computer Corporation (EMCC), and was completed after the company had been acquired by Remington Rand. In the years before successor models of the UNIVAC I appeared, the machine was simply known as "the UNIVAC".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">UNIVAC</span> Series of mainframe computer models

UNIVAC was a line of electronic digital stored-program computers starting with the products of the Eckert–Mauchly Computer Corporation. Later the name was applied to a division of the Remington Rand company and successor organizations.

Clifford Edward Berry helped John Vincent Atanasoff create the first digital electronic computer in 1939, the Atanasoff–Berry computer (ABC).

Clark R. Mollenhoff was a Pulitzer Prize winning American journalist, an attorney who served as Presidential Special Counsel, and a columnist for The Des Moines Register.

The Eckert–Mauchly Computer Corporation (EMCC) was a computer company founded by J. Presper Eckert and John Mauchly. It was incorporated on December 22, 1947. After building the ENIAC at the University of Pennsylvania, Eckert and Mauchly formed EMCC to build new computer designs for commercial and military applications. The company was initially called the Electronic Control Company, changing its name to Eckert–Mauchly Computer Corporation when it was incorporated. In 1950, the company was sold to Remington Rand, which later merged with Sperry Corporation to become Sperry Rand, and survives today as Unisys.

Honeywell, Inc. v. Sperry Rand Corp., et al., 180 U.S.P.Q. 673, was a landmark U.S. federal court case that in October 1973 invalidated the 1964 patent for the ENIAC, the world's first general-purpose electronic digital computer. The decision held, in part, the following: 1. that the ENIAC inventors had derived the subject matter of the electronic digital computer from the Atanasoff–Berry computer (ABC), prototyped in 1939 by John Atanasoff and Clifford Berry, 2. that Atanasoff should have legal recognition as the inventor of the first electronic digital computer and 3. that the invention of the electronic digital computer ought to be placed in the public domain.

Theory and Techniques for Design of Electronic Digital Computers was a course in the construction of electronic digital computers held at the University of Pennsylvania's Moore School of Electrical Engineering between July 8, 1946, and August 30, 1946, and was the first time any computer topics had ever been taught to an assemblage of people. The course disseminated the ideas developed for the EDVAC and initiated an explosion of computer construction activity in the United States and internationally, especially in the United Kingdom.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Arthur Burks</span> American mathematician

Arthur Walter Burks was an American mathematician who worked in the 1940s as a senior engineer on the project that contributed to the design of the ENIAC, the first general-purpose electronic digital computer. Decades later, Burks and his wife Alice Burks outlined their case for the subject matter of the ENIAC having been derived from John Vincent Atanasoff. Burks was also for several decades a faculty member at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alice Burks</span> American author of books about the history of electronic computers

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Boyadzhik is a village in Tundzha Municipality of Yambol Province, Bulgaria. Situated 22 km west of the city of Yambol, and 8 km southwest of the Bulgarian Air Force's Bezmer Air Base, at an elevation 153 m. Population 1,124. It is the birthplace of Ivan Atanasov, the father of John Vincent Atanasoff.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tundzha Municipality</span> Municipality in Yambol, Bulgaria

Tundzha Municipality is a municipality of Yambol Province, southeastern Bulgaria. The municipality has an area of 1,218.86 square kilometres, making it the second-largest by area in the country after the Capital Municipality. It covers 44 villages and has a population of 21,435 according to 2005 data. All the villages in the province are administratively equal, and the administrative centre of the municipality is located in the provincial capital of Yambol, which is not part of Tundzha municipality itself: the city is equivalent to Yambol Municipality, which is an enclave within Tundzha Municipality. Tundzha municipality is named after the Tundzha River, the most significant tributary of the Maritsa.

Earl Richard Larson was a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the District of Minnesota.

<i>The Man Who Invented the Computer</i> Biography by Jane Smiley

The Man Who Invented the Computer is a 2010 historical biography by author Jane Smiley about American physicist John Vincent Atanasoff and the invention of the computer. The book follows Atanasoff as he collaborates with others to develop the 1942 Atanasoff–Berry Computer (ABC), the first electronic digital computing device.

The Boyadzhik massacre was the massacre of 145 Bulgarian civilians committed by irregular Ottoman troops in the Bulgarian village of Boyadzhik on and after 24 May [O.S. 11 May] 1876.

References

Citations

  1. ↑ "Atanasoff, John Vincent" . Who's Who in America 1995. Vol. 1 (A-K) (49th ed.). New Providence, NJ: Marquis Who's Who. 1994. p. 129. ISBN   0837901596 . Retrieved January 22, 2020– via Internet Archive.
  2. ↑ Invitation to Computer Science . Retrieved February 8, 2014.
  3. ↑ "John Vincent Atanasoff - the father of the computer". www.columbia.edu. Retrieved February 1, 2024.
  4. ↑ Kiplinger's Personal Finance . Retrieved February 8, 2014.
  5. ↑ Portraits in Silicon . Retrieved February 8, 2014.
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Walter R. Baranger (June 17, 1995). "John V. Atanasoff, 91, Dies; Early Computer Researcher". The New York Times .
  7. ↑ Atanasoff 1985.
  8. ↑ The first electronic digital computer working on a binary code and using mathematical logic had been created in 1937-1942 by the American physicist of the Irish-Bulgarian origin John Vincent Atanasoff (1903-1995.) For more see: Mikhail Mikhailov (2005) Key to the Vedas, Belarusian Information Center, p. 62, ISBN   9856701872.
  9. ↑ My mother (she is still alive, at 89 years of age) is a typical American with a mixture of Irish, English and French blood, so that the Bulgarian language was never spoken in our house. For more see: Blagovest Sendov (2003) John Atanasoff: The Electronic Prometheus, St. Kliment Ohridski University Press, Sofia, p. 57, ISBN   954071849X.
  10. ↑ During his variegated life, Atanasoff met and married a teacher of Mathematics, called Iva, with Irish and French blood in her veins. His wife bore eight children, one of whom was christened by his mother John – Vincent. For more see: Dimitar Shishko (2001) John Atanasoff: The Father of the Computer, Tangra TanNakRa, p. 59, ISBN   9549942244.
  11. ↑ Mollenhoff 1988, p. 62–66.
  12. ↑ Mollenhoff 1988, pp. 81–86.
  13. ↑ "Biography of John Atanasoff". president.bg. Retrieved February 1, 2024.
  14. ↑ "Minor Planet Center, object 3546". Minor Planet Center. Retrieved November 2, 2016.
  15. 1 2 "Prof. Kiril Boyanov. John Vincent Atanasoff – The Inventor of the First Electronic Digital Computing" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on February 21, 2014. Retrieved February 8, 2014.
  16. ↑ "Honoring Dr. John Atanasoff on the One Hundredth Anniversary of His Birth". Congressional Record – Extensions of Remarks. October 30, 2003. pp. E2159–2160. Retrieved May 15, 2009.
  17. ↑ Loevinger, Vee (1996). "The Inventor of the Electronic Computer--The Cosmos Club Member Who Changed Our World". Cosmos Journal. 6. Retrieved March 27, 2023.
  18. ↑ Boyanov, Kiril Lubenov (2003). "John Vincent Atanasoff: The inventor of the first electronic digital computing". Proceedings of the 4th international conference conference on Computer systems and technologies e-Learning - CompSysTech '03. pp. 1–7. doi:10.1145/973620.973621. ISBN   9549641333. S2CID   28795679.
  19. 1 2 Yambol Province Government. Archived June 11, 2008, at the Wayback Machine Website (in Bulgarian)
  20. ↑ Boshart, Rod (May 30, 2014). "Kenneth Quinn presented the Iowa Award". Muscatine Journal. Retrieved November 1, 2020.
  21. ↑ "SCAR Composite Antarctic Gazetteer entry". Data.aad.gov.au. March 15, 2002. Retrieved February 8, 2014.
  22. ↑ "Minor Planet Names: Alphabetical List". Cfa.harvard.edu. Retrieved February 8, 2014.
  23. ↑ Schmadel 2000.
  24. ↑ National Military University Archived January 10, 2008, at the Wayback Machine Website (in Bulgarian)
  25. ↑ "John Atanasoff Award". Archived from the original on June 10, 2008.
  26. ↑ Bestowing the 2005 John Atanasoff Award. Archived June 13, 2008, at the Wayback Machine Iowa State University website.
  27. ↑ John Atanasoff Technical College
  28. ↑ The 7th John Atanasoff Tournament. Darik News website (in Bulgarian)
  29. ↑ John Atanasoff Professional High School of Electronics, Stara Zagora Archived January 4, 2008, at the Wayback Machine
  30. ↑ "John Atanasoff Professional High School of Electronics, Sofia". Archived from the original on June 10, 2008.
  31. ↑ Atanas Georgiev. "John Atanasoff Chitalishte, Sofia". Chitalishte.bg. Archived from the original on April 18, 2012. Retrieved February 8, 2014.
  32. ↑ Atanas Georgiev. "John Atanasoff Chitalishte, Boyadzhik". Chitalishte.bg. Archived from the original on October 25, 2007. Retrieved February 8, 2014.
  33. ↑ Prof. John Atanasoff Primary School, Sofia. Picture
  34. ↑ "ยืนยัน otp รับเครดิตฟรี50 ไม่ต้องแชร์ – Official Website". Archived from the original on February 16, 2008.
  35. ↑ Страницата е генерирана за 0.55 сек. на 08.02.2014 02:54. "John Atanasoff Professional Technical High School, Kyustendil". Schools.pomagalo.com. Retrieved February 8, 2014.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  36. ↑ John Atanasoff Bulgarian Language School Website
  37. ↑ John Atanasoff Professional High School of Economic Informatics, Targovishte
  38. ↑ "John Atanasoff University Student Computer Club, Plovdiv University". Archived from the original on October 24, 2007.
  39. ↑ "John Atanasoff Street, Yambol addressee". Nts-yambol.org. Retrieved February 8, 2014.
  40. ↑ "John Atanasoff Street, Sofia addressee". Mall.neogen.bg. Archived from the original on June 10, 2008. Retrieved February 8, 2014.

Works cited

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